Numbers 21:4-9 (NRSV)
Read Numbers 21:4-9 on biblegateway.com
Verse 4From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. Verse 5The people spoke against God and against Moses, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food." Verse 6Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. Verse 7The people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people. Verse 8And the Lord said to Moses, "Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live." Verse 9So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.
Devotion
Using "highs and lows" as a conversation starter with young people can seem like an exercise in futility: "My high is that I got an 'A' on my math test. My low is that I have homework." Teenage social tendencies aside, I'm convinced that God is present and cares about those grades and hours of homework. As a youth director, my role is to help articulate the connections I see to God-sightings within the tests and homework. I'm no Moses with a bronze serpent, but it's an incredible honor to sit in the midst of conversation with young people when it has been reframed and broken open to include God in the mix.
The Israelites needed a God sighting. They needed a reminder that God still cared for them in spite of their wilderness wandering. Through the Israelites we see a God who is big enough to hear our supplication and act with mercy, even when we don't think to bring God into the mix ourselves. During Lent, we are gifted the liturgical opportunity to slow down and make space for God sightings.
Prayer
God of mercy, when life feels mundane, frustrating and even despairing, hear our cries and reveal your hope. Amen.